Sir Henry Neville, the
courtier and diplomatist, was born in 1564 and grew up at Billingbear
House in Berkshire, which his father, Sir Henry Neville Senior, had
built when he was three. His mother was Elizabeth daughter of John Gresham
MP of Mayfield in East Sussex and Northend at Fulham in Middlesex . Henry matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 20th December 1577
and, on 30th August 1605, was created a Master of Arts. During his young
adulthood,
Neville lived at the old Archbishop's Palace at Mayfield, inherited by
his parents from his mother's cousin, the famous financier and founder of the
Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham (who had bought it from Henry's maternal
grandfather). There, he carried on the business of an
iron-founder at the famous Mayfield Furnace. He was introduced at Court by
William Cecil, Lord Burghley, whose wife's niece he married in December
1584. Throughout his life, Henry sat in parliament, being the member for New
Windsor (where his father was influential) in 1584-5 and 1593,
Sussex in 1588-9 (where he lived), Liskeard (where his brother-in-law was
Steward) in 1597-8, Kent in 1601, Lewes in 1603-4 and Berkshire in 1604-11
and 1614 (where he then lived). In 1592, he managed to obtain a five-year monopoly for the export of cast iron cannon
from England: thus producing more guns than anyone else in the country. The
following year, Neville's father's died and he succeeded to the family
estates but, when his trading monopoly ended, he sold Mayfield in order to
consolidate his position in Berkshire, closer to the Royal Court. He had
already been put in charge of Royal lands in that county in 1593, as Steward
of Donnington Castle
and the old Bishop's Palace
at Sonning (where his coat of
arms is remembered at the Bull Inn) and Bailiff of lands in Newbury;
and had been appointed Sheriff in 1595 and Deputy-Lieutenant the following
year.

As
a man of high character, Neville was soon selected for important Royal service.
In 1599, he was knighted and sent as Ambassador to France, though he was
somewhat reluctant to take up the post as it could incur huge personal
expense. Neville claimed he needed to be in
England to arrange payment for the estates of the deceased Sir
Henry Unton (centred on Wadley House at Littleworth in Faringdon).
His excuses were rejected and he was sent to Paris anyway. His short embassy was
dominated by complaints about French attacks on English ships and the debts
owed to England as a result of help given during the Wars of the Catholic
League. He also entered into negotiations with the Spanish over peace in the
Netherlands at Boulogne, but he had already had a dispute with the Spanish
ambassador over precedency and the talks soon broke down. The declining influence
of Protestants at the French court worried Neville considerably and he
complained that he was not overly well treated there. So, when troubled by
deafness in February 1600, he asked to be recalled. He, afterwards,
complained that he had spent some £4,000 of his own money while in France.
Sir Henry returned to England
in time to become embroiled in Essex's Plot against the Government. Although
he was not part of the Earl's inner circle, he had certainly had meetings
with him, sympathised with his more Protestant stance and knew of the
designs of his followers, having been in the confidence of the Earl of
Southampton. Consequently, when the rebellion failed, Neville suddenly
became very keen to take up his ambassadorial post again, but he was
arrested aboard his ship at Dover and imprisoned, briefly in Chelsea and then
in the Tower of London. He was brought before the Royal Council on 8th July,
dismissed from his position and fined £5,000. In the last year of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, he agreed to pay that sum in yearly installments of £1,000.
Upon James I's accession, he was released by Royal Warrant on 10th April
1603. There is an allusion to his dangerous situation in one of Ben Jonson's Epigrams.

Under James I, Sir
Henrye
played a more prominent role in politics. He inclined to the popular party.
While in Paris, he had been called a puritan. His advice was at all events
not to James's taste. In the first session of 1610, he advised the King to
give way to the demands of the House of Commons. With a family of marriageable
age and desperate for money, Neville became much interested in commercial
affairs as well as ingratiating himself with the monarch. In 1613, he even
drew up a scheme for an overland trade route from India. The previous year,
he had urged the calling of a parliament and drew up a paper on the subject,
in which he recommended a concessionary compromise with Parliament over the
Royal prerogative since supplies would be easily voted for if grievances
were redressed. He hoped this would find favour with the King. On
Salisbury's death, later the same year, Neville was a candidate for the
Secretaryship of State. He persuaded the King's favourite, Robert Carr,
Viscount Rochester, to arrange a meeting for him with his Royal master in
Windsor Great Park, where he outlined his plans. His appointment would have
been popular, but the King had no liking for him or for the policy which can
only have regarded complete surrender. Southampton used his influence on
Neville's behalf but, by October 1613, his chances were hopeless. Ralph
Winwood, who had been his clerk in Paris, was made Secretary in 1614, much
to Neville's irritation, and he refused Rochester's offer of the office of
Treasurer of the Chamber as a compensation. In the 'Addled Parliament' of
1614, the paper of advice which Neville had shown the King in the Great Park
was discussed by the Commons in the May and, with his view, the
Commons could find no fault. potentially profitable patent to
prosecute those despoiling royal forest, on which he had set his store,
denied him by the council. He died on 10th July 1615, when his eldest son,
Henry, inherited Billingbear. His widow retired to Shellingford
Manor.

He married Anne,
daughter of the diplomat, Sir Henry Killigrew and Katherine, daughter of
King Edward VI's tutor, Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall at Romford in Essex.
As well as being the sister-in-law to Lord Burghley, her mother was also
sister-in-law of the Lord Chancellor, Sir Nicholas Bacon, who was the father
(by his first marriage) of Henry's step-mother; and also the sister of Elizabeth,
Lady Hoby & Lady Russell from Bisham
'Abbey'. Sir Henry and Lady Neville had five sons and six daughters.
Of the sons, Sir Henry (1588-1629) of Billingbear was father of Henry
Neville (1620-1694), the political writer; William (1596-1640), the second
son, was Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Edward (1601-1632), a Fellow of
King's College, Cambridge; Charles (1607-1626); and Richard (1608-1644) was
Sub-Warden of Merton and ancestor, in the female line, of the Nevilles,
Barons of Braybrooke. Of the daughters, Frances (1592-1660) married,
firstly, Sir Richard Worseley of Appledurcombe in Hampshire, and, secondly,
Major-General Jerome Brett of Rotherby in Leicestershire; Catherine (died
1650) married Sir Richard Brooks of Norton in Cheshire; Dorothy (1605-1673)
married Richard Catlyn of Wingfield Castle in Suffolk; Anne (born 1610)
married Thomas Vicars (1589–1638), the theologian; Elizabeth (1610-1657)
married, firstly, William Glover, secondly, Sir Henry Berkeley of Yarlington
in Somerset, and, thirdly, Thomas Duke; and Mary (1613-1642) marriedSir Edward Lewknor of Denham Hall, Suffolk.

It has recently been
suggested that Neville was the 'true' author of Shakespeare's plays, but
this idea has found little support in academic circles.

Heavily edited from Sidney Lee's
'Dictionary of National Biography' (1894)